The creator of 'Hellboy,' Mike Mignola, contributes a cover to the upcoming 'Black Hammer' spinoff, 'Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil.'

Last year, writer Jeff Lemire and artist Dean Ormston introduced readers to the universe of Black Hammer, a world where the greatest superheroes were banished from existence and forced to live on in unexpected ways. This year, Lemire is expanding that universe alongside artist David Rubin with their new four-issue miniseries, Sherlock Frankenstein & the Legion of Evil.

As the name suggests, Sherlock Frankenstein and his evil associates aren’t heroes…far from it, in fact. They are the supervillains who were left behind after Black Hammer and his comrades were whisked away. As explained by Ormston, there will be a direct connection between this story and Black Hammer, as we discover what became of Spiral City after the age of heroes came to an abrupt end.

“Lucy Weber, the daughter of the Black Hammer, is an investigative newspaper reporter, and her search for the truth about her father leads her to some very dark places,” said Ormston. “In Sherlock Frankenstein & the Legion of Evil. , Lucy heads to Spiral City’s infamous asylum to confront the world’s greatest super villains and the secrets they have locked away.”

Of course, Mignola wasn’t the only one to get in on the variant cover fun. Lemire also drew a variant of his own, that evoked Frank Miller’s famous cover from The Dark Knight Returns.

According to Lemire, Sherlock Frankenstein & the Legion of Evil is just the beginning of the expanded Black Hammer universe. More miniseries will be released in the future as he and Ormston flesh out the characters and their world.

“While working on Black Hammer I found myself having more and more ideas for other types of superhero stories,” explained Lemire. “The main Black Hammer story continues to be the spine of these ideas, but I found them branching off into new directions and new characters as well. It occurred to me that there was a whole history here, a whole superhero universe all of our own, that I could explore and create within. So, Dean Ormston and I have decided to expand the world of Black Hammer and create an avenue to tell these other stories.”

Sherlock Frankenstein & the Legion of Evil # 1 will be released on Wednesday, October 18, in comic stores everywhere.

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